HER Royal Highness Princess Anne attended Loughborough University today (Monday) for the launch of a major campaign aimed at boosting the number of female sports coaches.

Princess Royal, who is the Sports Coach UK Patron, met a number of female coaches, who are benefitting from the Women into High Performance Workshop today (March 9) at Loughborough University, the day after International Women’s Day.

Princess Royal – daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip – was escorted by car to the Burleigh Court Conference Centre, where she was met by Lord-Lieutenant Lady Gretton and vice chancellor Prof Robert Allison.

The session, the third in a series to develop coaches, will raise awareness about and improve the coaching opportunities available to women.

During her visit she took part in a discussion with a number of governing bodies of sport, identifying how they can apply the benefits of the programme more widely.

Sports Coach UK is one of the country’s leading agency for coaching.

It says that although women coaches account for 30 per cent of the workforce overall, the number of qualified female coaches drops to 17 per cent.

Helen Davey, deputy CEO of Sports Coach UK, said: “This Girl Can Coach is about women of all ages and backgrounds, coaching with real confidence, whilst having fun.

“Coaching not only helps women build leadership skills in the sporting arenas, but empowers them to reach out confidently in all aspects of their lives.

“As the UK’s leading agency for coaching we are working hard to tackle the gender imbalance present in coaching at all levels by supporting initiatives such as Project 500 which aims to train and develop hundreds of female coaches in the South East.”